Breaking down physical flaws key to fixing them

Breaking down physical flaws key to fixing them

Since tennis is one of the few sports where the competitor is out there without a coach telling them how to correct their errors, tennis players must learn how to self-correct. Throughout a match, tennis players are constantly making adjustments, mentally and physically, to beat their opponent.

This column has addressed the mental aspects many times. Today let's talk about the physical changes to your game you might need to make during a match but also during your practices.

In any sport or in any situation everyone is trying to improve. To get better at something you need to periodically make corrections. To make the corrections you need to know what to correct. And to know what to correct you have to know the root of the problem.

So just as I did in the above paragraph when you see a potential problem you have to dissect the situation down to the real reason the infraction is occurring.

The easiest and best way to explain this is to give examples.

Let's say your forehand is going in the net. Initially you think it's because you are hitting down on the ball. That's probably true, but why are you hitting down on the ball? Because your backswing is too high.

But when you dissect it down farther, there could be two reasons for a high backswing. You can check to make sure your racquet arm is not too high, but maybe you find your arm is good. Next you might think that since your arm is low maybe your wrist is cocked up, making for a high backswing. This is the case a lot of times without the player realizing it.

If the wrist is not the problem the last thing to look for is that maybe your front shoulder is dipping just before you swing, which would make you hit down on the ball and make it go into the net.

If the player just tries to correct this error with "don't hit down on the ball," the correction will not be successful. They might need to dissect the possible solutions all the way down to the root of the problem.

How would you correct your backhand if it was going wide? Your first thought is that you're swinging late making the ball go wide. That's probably true but why are you swinging late? Think deeper and you might realize that for some reason you are late getting your racquet back for your backswing making you swing late making the ball go wide.

That might be the root of the problem or there might be one more layer. Maybe you're late with your backswing because your footwork is slow. So by dissecting your situation down to the root of your problem you will now be able to solve your backhand error.

If your serve is continually going in the net, you need to think about why. Your initial thought may be that your front shoulder is dropping, which could be true, but why? It's probably because your toss is too far in front. You can't keep your shoulder up if your toss is too far into the court. The root of the problem was not your serve, it was your toss.

Why is your backhand volley going long? You may realize that your racquethead is turning under at contact giving the ball too much elevation, but why is it turning under? When you hit a few more practice volleys you realize that on the ones that are going long your wrist feels weak but, again, what's making it feel weak?

After a few more, you make the correlation that it's when you make contact too far behind you that makes your wrist feel weak, which makes your racquet turn under the ball, which makes the ball go long. So after you dissected the situation down to the real problem, you can now correct it. Making contact in front corrects the root of the problem which, in turn, corrects all of the other problems.

Most of the time these things need to be done on the practice court. If your forehand needs major surgery during a competitive match there's not much time to do these things. But during your practice sessions, learn how to dissect your problems down to the root of the problem so you can correct them and start having fun again.